Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

Feb 19 The following bids, mergers, acquisitions
and disposals were reported by 1500 GMT on Tuesday:

** Capital One Financial Corp said it agreed to sell
to Citigroup Inc its $7 billion portfolio of private label
and co-branded credit card accounts linked to electronics
retailer Best Buy Co Inc.

** Japanese financial services firm Orix Corp said
on Tuesday it has agreed to buy Dutch asset manager Robeco from
its owner, Rabobank, for 1.935 billion euros ($2.58
billion) in a cash-and-stock deal.

** Office Depot Inc, the No.2 U.S. office supply
retailer, is in advanced talks to merge with smaller rival
OfficeMax Inc and a deal could come as early as this
week, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

** The government's sale of a $10 billion stake in Japan
Tobacco Inc, the world's third-largest tobacco company,
is expected to kick off within days after bankers met on Tuesday
over deal details, sources close to the deal told Reuters.

** Vodafone Group Plc moved closer to a possible 10
billion-euro bid for German cable operator Kabel Deutschland
by hiring long-time banker Goldman Sachs to
advise on options, a person with direct knowledge of the matter
told Reuters on Tuesday.

** TNT Express, whose $7 billion takeover by
United Parcel Service was blocked last month, reported a
further loss on Monday, saying it would sell units in Brazil and
China and cut costs as it prepares for a future alone.

** Bancolombia SA, Colombia's largest lender by
assets, agreed to purchase HSBC Bank SA Panama for $2.1 billion,
the company told local regulators on Tuesday, the latest in an
expansion wave by Colombian banks in Latin America.

** Canadian life insurer Great-West Lifeco Inc said
on Tuesday it would buy Irish Life Group Ltd for C$1.75 billion
($1.73 billion).

** Abu Dhabi's Aldar Properties, which plans to
merge with smaller rival Sorouh Real Estate, on Tuesday
said its largest shareholder Mubadala converted bonds in the
company to shares, boosting its capital by nearly 10 percent.

** Denmark's Dong Energy Wind Power A/S is
selling its onshore wind farms in Poland to local
state-controlled utilities PGE and Energa for around 1
billion zlotys ($318.76 million), PGE said on Tuesday.

** Glencore-controlled zinc producer Kazzinc and
Kazakh investment company Verny Capital have purchased two gold
deposits in northern Kazakhstan with combined reserves of some
70 tonnes for about $200 million, Verny Capital said on Tuesday.

** Shares in German steel distributor Kloeckner & Co SE
jumped more than 10 percent after a stake purchase by
billionaire investor Albrecht Knauf sparked speculation he could
be planning a full bid.

** Poland's state-controlled chemicals maker Azoty Tarnow
said it had offered to buy the remaining 16 percent
stake it does not yet control in its smaller rival Pulawy
. It said it offered to but the stake for 132.6 zlotys
per share, or more than 400 million zlotys ($127.5 million) in
total.

** Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Monday it would
work with privately held U.S. company Chiasma to develop and
market a treatment for growth hormone disorders in a deal worth
almost $600 million in upfront and milestone payments.

** Shares in Jet Airways fell as much as 6.8
percent on Monday, a day after the chairman of Etihad Airways
said the Abu Dhabi-based carrier needed to revise the terms of a
pending deal to buy a stake in the Indian airline.

The deal would be the first since India relaxed ownership
rules in September and allowed foreign carriers to buy up to 49
percent in local carriers, which are battling stiff competition
and high operating costs.

** SCMP Group Ltd, the publisher of South China
Morning Post newspaper, said on Monday it is in talks regarding
the possible acquisition of a group of media companies in Hong
Kong. It did not identify targets.

** A key Indonesian investor has sold his 10 percent holding
in Bumi Plc only days before a key vote on the miner's
future, threatening Nat Rothschild's hopes of victory in the
battle to win control of the company.

** Turkish glass maker Trakya Cam said that it
had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy Germany's
Fritz Holding, which makes glass coating and molded parts for
the automotive industry.

** Natixis plans to shed its 20 percent stake in a
network of savings banks tied to its parent company BPCE in a
deal that will free up capital and allow for a one-off 2
billion-euro ($2.7 billion) dividend to shareholders.

** Bolivian President Evo Morales, who has tightened state
control over the nation's small economy since taking office in
2006, nationalized an airports operator owned by Spanish
infrastructure company Abertis on Monday.

** Telco, the holding company that controls Telecom Italia
, is gearing up to write down its 22.45 percent stake
in the Italian telecoms company by at least 20 percent, two
sources close to the situation said on Monday.

** Mexico's Grupo Gigante on Monday did not rule out a
possible acquisition of the 50 percent stake in the Mexican unit
of U.S. office-supply store chain Office Depot that it does not
already own following a report it was in talks to do so.

** Media group Independent News & Media (INM) has
agreed to sell its South African unit to a consortium of
investors for 2 billion rand ($226 million), the Irish company
said on Sunday.

Next In Funds News

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was priced in the mid-point of its expected range, valuing the
company at about $7.55 billion.

KINSHASA, Dec 9 The appointment of a temporary
administrator to run the Tenke copper mine has been blocked by
an appeals body, the mine said on Friday, removing a hurdle to a
takeover by China Molybdenum.

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